Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Miscellaneous/2017 July 5

Welcome to the Wikipedia Miscellaneous Reference Desk Archives
The page you are currently viewing is an archive page. While you can leave answers for any questions shown below, please ask new questions on one of the current reference desk pages.

July 5

Gas station robbery murder

Many, many years ago, I saw a television program about a black male who committed a gas station robbery where he murdered someone or some people (presumably in the US). Afterwards, the man escaped police by fleeing to many, many different countries. I think they said he hijacked airplanes, and whenever they found out he was in one country, he'd flee to the next before the police could catch him.

What case was this? I've looked all over the internet and I can't find it. I'd think a case like this would be very publicly known. Philmonte101 😊😄😞 (talk) 09:15, 5 July 2017 (UTC)

Most likely George Wright, also an overview of this case. Brandmeister^talk 11:56, 5 July 2017 (UTC)

Insurance against being forced to stop work due to ill health

I quite fancy working til I'm 80, since I like my job and have quite good prospects in my industry. I don't really want to plan for a traditional retirement which I think I'd find very boring, and I know I would struggle to save enough for unless I plan to live very badly. But is there a type of insurance I can buy against being forced to stop fulltime work at an earlier age because of medical problems? I don't know if something like that even exists, or what it would be called. 95.250.150.56 (talk) 19:05, 5 July 2017 (UTC)

See Disability insurance. --Xuxl (talk) 19:18, 5 July 2017 (UTC)

I was going to direct you to Permanent health insurance, which I see now directs to Income protection insurance. I have a suspicion those two articles should be merged.. --ColinFine (talk) 16:26, 7 July 2017 (UTC)

First bottles(-ish) closed by screw caps?

Looking for information on when bottles (or flasks, or pouches, I guess) were first closed with a screw cap.Naraht (talk) 19:32, 5 July 2017 (UTC)

See here. [1] The Mason jar was first patented in 1858, but the use of screw caps for drink bottles is more recent. That same article point to a 1976 patent for a screw-top wine bottle, but another article [2] points to early screw-top bottles dating back to the 1920s. --Xuxl (talk) 20:33, 5 July 2017 (UTC)

(Bit later than the Mason jar, but not as recent as the 20th century): The article on bottle cap (subsection "Screw cap") states: "Screw caps were originally an internal thread design. A glass bottle / jar with an internal screw-thread immediately below a gasket-seat, having a beveled seat, was patented by Hyman (Himan) Frank of the William Frank & Sons, Inc. of Pittsburgh, PA. He was awarded patent US 130208 A on August 6, 1872". There is no inline reference, and the article on screw cap doesn't mention anything. The patent does exist and can be viewed at Google Patents for example: Improvement in bottle-stoppers — US 130208 A. ---Sluzzelin talk 20:39, 5 July 2017 (UTC)

The makers of Irn Bru (a rather peculiar-tasting Scottish soft drink) state on their About us - Our history page that their first bottles with a "metal roll-on cap" was introduced in 1968. Before that, there were a variety of rubber or plastic bungs with an internal screw. Alansplodge (talk) 23:07, 5 July 2017 (UTC)

I'd like to add, irrelevantly and inanely, that I can't wait to sample Irn Bru during my next travels to Scotland. Yes, I realize that it can be purchased other places I might visit sooner. But I hope to sample it in Edinburgh. My last trip there (and to Scotland in general) lies over 25 years in the past, before I encountered John Rebus whose occasional (yet consistently increasing) cantankerous settling for Irn Bru I wish to emulate in loco, naturally! ---Sluzzelin talk 00:32, 6 July 2017 (UTC)

Irn Bru, famously, is described as "made in Scotland from girders. It's a believable claim. --Dweller (talk) Become old fashioned! 11:57, 10 July 2017 (UTC)

In a book I have about the history of bottle making, The Story of the Glass Bottle (C. E. Ramsden & Co, Stoke on Trent Oct 1972), author Edward Meigh writes in Chapter Four, In the Nineteenth Century:

". . . in 1872 the internal screw stopper was introduced; in 1874 the marble stopper in the Codd's patent bottle; also in 1875 the swing stopper and in 1892 the crown cork." (page thirty).

This corroborates Sluzzelin's contribution above.

In Chapter Five The American contribution, he observes:

"Two inventions made in the latter part of the 19th century are of interest, the Mason jar and the milk bottle. The Mason jar had a screw top, an original feature . . . ." (page thirty-six).

This agrees with the inference from Xuxl's contribution and source that the external metal screw cap originates with the Mason jar and was subsequently applied to narrower-necked bottles made by machines, which were more uniform than hand-blown bottles – a screw cap obviously requires quite precise closure dimensions in order to work. In his Chapter Four (ibid), (pages twenty-eight to -nine), Meigh describes the introduction of the Ashley bottle machine, patented by Arnold and Ashley in 1886 and (with an improved design) by Ashley in 1887, and says:

". . . his machines were not a commercial success until the patents were bought by Bagley and Co. and improvements made by them in the construction of the machines."

{The poster formerly known as 87.81.230.195} 90.211.133.203 (talk) 00:02, 6 July 2017 (UTC)

OP: Had not thought to include the situation with an internal screw thread and a closure that fit inside it, but now from these postings and their information realize the level of mechanization necessary for the accuracy of the screw threads. Looks like the general answer is the third quarter of the 19th century saw the idea and initial usage and became common in the last quarter of the 19th century.Naraht (talk) 11:11, 6 July 2017 (UTC)

In my 1960s childhood in Londopn, I distinctly recall bottles with "vulcaite" internal screw bungs so it looks as though we might have been well behind the USA in that regard. I can't find another reference for the introduction of screw caps over here, but the late 1960s seems plausible. Alansplodge (talk) 12:37, 6 July 2017 (UTC)

Searching for a game

I can only barely remember a video game.

I saw a trailer a while ago, so i don't know if its released or not.

In this game there are 3 alien fractions - though the game seems to be more fantasy than sci fi.

In the trailer i could see floating ships - that reminded me of ancient china.

Anyone can help me? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 77.186.39.2 (talk) 20:45, 5 July 2017 (UTC)

Starcraft and Starcraft 2 has three factions. The Protoss faction has floating ships, their design is fairly fantastical, and one might thing some of their designs are reminiscent of Chinese art - e.g. [3],[4]. -- Finlay McWalter··–·Talk 22:12, 5 July 2017 (UTC)

Help us out here, when you say "floating ships" do you mean spaceships? Dirigibles? Heavier-than-air sci-fi vehicles? Or actual tall sailing ships that are floating in air because magic? (Or floating in water because that's what boats are for.) ApLundell (talk) 15:30, 6 July 2017 (UTC)

I am talking about ships, not spaceships. They were hovering over a landscape similar to the rocks of the movie Avatar. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 92.226.142.21 (talk) 15:53, 6 July 2017 (UTC)

This is a tough one. So many games are out there now. Here are some possibilities.

• Granblue Fantasy or its upcoming sequel.
• Skies of Arcadia is an old game (Year 2000), but it has flying ships.
• Guns of Icarus Online might fit the bill, though the ships have the hulls of tall ships, but are held aloft by gasbags like a traditional non-magical airship.
• Worlds Adrift. Floating tall ships, alien-looking monsters. MMORPG.
• Cloud Pirates Only two factions, but otherwise similar to what you described.

I'm sure there are others that fit your criteria that I've missed. Anything else you remember about the trailer would help. ApLundell (talk) 15:45, 7 July 2017 (UTC)

How tall is Hogback Mountain?

The article for Hogback Mountain (Vermont) says that the mountain is either 2,409' or 2,410' tall. The Google Knowledge Graph says 2,411'. I know we can't do anything about Google except suggest an edit. But where can be found a reliable source for the height? None of the current references say. Thanks, †dismas†|^(talk) 23:43, 5 July 2017 (UTC)

In passing, I notice that the metric conversions are also contradictory, with that for the lede's 2,409' given as 734 m, and for the infobox's 2410' as 730 m – possibly some inconsistant rounding has been applied.

As to the sources, the USGS GNIS entry linked by the article's Reference 1 gives 2388'/728m, while the Trail Maps on the Hogback Mountain Conservation Association's website linked by the Reference 2 shows 2,409' – quite a disparity! {The poster formerly known as 87.91.230.195} 90.211.133.203 (talk) 00:20, 6 July 2017 (UTC)

And this site - https://www.mountain-forecast.com/peaks/Hogback-Mountain-Vermont - manages to show 725m, 732m and 735m - all on the same page. Then this site - http://www.summitpost.org/hogback-mountain/153326 - says 1110m! I think it may be on springs. Wymspen (talk) 14:17, 6 July 2017 (UTC)

USGS tends to track these things more carefully than others, and they tend to work in feet as far as I've seen, so I'd be most inclined to trust their 2388 figure and auto-convert it to 2,388 feet (728 m). Nyttend (talk) 20:40, 7 July 2017 (UTC)